Customer Reviews

Unholy Grail

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Unholy Grail is a finely crafted tale of good versus evil, righteousness versus cold blooded murder. Like Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, the bloodline of Jesus is in question; unlike Dan Brown's novel, the author's extensive research allows the reader to see both sides of the controversy through his character Britt, a professor of religion, and Father Romano, a Jesuit priest. D.L. Wilson skillfully weaves his tale of murder and ambition and religious zealotry gone astray, and the reader is reminded again that the Holy Grail was not just a simple chalice.

The author's plot winds around this controversy like Le Serpent Rouge. Wilson's meticulous research included visiting Rennes-le Chateau and interviewing the theological and scientific communities. Father Romano, a non-traditional protagonist, is based on information gleaned from Jesuit priests. In fact, a copy of this book lies on a shelf of the Jesuit library. Those who were skeptical of Dan Brown's book from a religious standpoint will find this book stimulating and palatable.

From Father Romano's first brush with death to the grand finale, the novel's characters are believable and the plot compelling. The novel reads like a fast paced movie, forcing you to turn the pages and providing information that the average reader will soak up with enthusiasm and debate over dinner. Wilson engineers the language, characters, plot, and setting to achieve a religious thriller rivaling any on the market. If you enjoyed Da Vinci Code, you'll like this one even better. This novel could easily be turned into a box office smash hit.

I was leery about buying a novel from a first-time author, but the book was a pleasant surprise. I couldn't put it down! "Unholy Grail" is an engrossing, well-executed thriller. The research, breathless action scenes, and intricate plotting made for a refreshing reading experience.

The two main characters, Father Joseph Romano, a Jesuit priest and Brittany Hamar, a female religious professor who is having a crisis of faith, are thrown into a conspiracy that challenges accepted church doctrine. They each receive a mysterious call offering them a secret gospel written by Jesus' brother, James. When they arrive at Grand Central Station to receive the document, there is a shooting that thrusts Father Romano and Hamar into the center of a growing conspiracy.

Father Romano is caught between church doctrine and his search for truth when his mentor joins a number of priests dying under strange circumstances after meeting with Hamar. To find the truth and stop the deaths, Romano and Hamar embark on a chase through Europe searching for a bizarre killer and answers to troubling revelations that conflict with religious doctrine. The chase ends with a chilling, surprising, but satisfying climax.

"Unholy Grail" is a superb thriller with a tightly woven plotline and complex characters. The obvious exhaustive research makes the plot premise so believable. D.L. Wilson's first effort at fiction is nothing short of a great read.

Unholy Grail is an action-packed read that not only kept me turning the pages searching for the next plot twist, but caused me to ponder traditional religious beliefs. Unholy Grail moves beyond just a thriller and delves into how historical perceptions, religious dogma, myths, conspiracy theories, and the gray areas between fact and fiction can effect our lives.

Father Joseph Romano and religious scholar Brittany Hamar are fabulous, well-developed characters who kept me glued to the fast-paced plot as they chased after a mysterious parchment, written by Jesus's brother James, and answers to why Jesuit priests are found dead, marked with the Stigmata. Their quest takes them to Vienna and across Europe through the South of France searching for evidence of Le Serpent Rouge, a possible bloodline of Christ and Mary Magdalene. The detailed location descriptions were so realistic, I envisioned myself being along for the ride. What they find in a mountaintop village high in the French Pyrenees is the Unholy Grail that could send shock waves through the Church.

D.L. Wilson has taken the Religious Thriller to new heights with immaculate research providing a thought provoking astonishing novel. I have to agree with Clive Cussler's quote, "A tale rich with intrigue that grips the imagination. A must read."

Fordham University professor and Jesuit priest Joseph Romano and Brittany Hamar, a professor at Hunter College, are on the trail of an ancient manuscript in D.L. Wilson's debut novel Unholy Grail. The text they're after is alleged to have been written by James, the brother of Jesus, shortly after the crucifixion. The quest involves the two in a millennia-old religious conspiracy involving the true nature of the Holy Grail and the possible existence of a bloodline of Christ, with descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene alive in the present day. Their investigation is a dangerous one: Hamar has been targeted already by a shadowy assassin, and Jesuit priests have a way of turning up dead after meeting with her.

Unholy Grail is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the author offers some nice surprises early on in the book, when Romano and Hamar first meet in Grand Central Station. And the mystery of the dead priests and the unusual condition of their corpses is initially an interesting one. But the book's dialogue is clunky and there are numerous bits of boring exposition related to Hamar's flirtation with unorthodox religious beliefs. The characters are two-dimensional and no real suspense is built in the story. And the storyline, frankly, feels a bit stale in this post-DaVinci Code world. Unholy Grail is by no means an awful book, but there's nothing that stands out about it either--despite the raves it's elicited from a number of high-power blurbers.

I did not enjoy this book at all. I predicted every last sentence. I am a fan of the religious thriller, but this book had nothing new to offer for me. I thought that the two main characters were developed enough, but were so boring. They had the exact same conversation throughout most of the chapters. The author could have taken out some of the chapters for the same effect. The Priest was trying to tell the author to reconsider her book, and the author was trying to get the Priest to see her point of view... over and over and over. I got so frustrated reading the same thing again and again. I would not recommend this book... try something else!

Out of the blue, Father Joseph Romano gets a phone call from a man asking him to meet him at a certain time and place to discuss the Gospel of James, which describes what happened at the crucifixion. When the priest arrives at the Grand Central Station locale, a shot is fired at a woman holding a box. Someone tried to kill Brittany Hamar who is wring a book The Jesus Fraud that questions the basic tents of Christianity.

Britt received the same call that Joseph did. Soon two priests including one that is a friend of Joseph dies. Joseph wants to know what Britt is working on that is so controversial that someone wanted her dead and how that ties to the dead priests. Britt tells him about a covert group the RexDeus and their inner circle Le Serpent Rouge dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Christ and Mary Magdalene. Britt has in her possession a piece of the Gospel of James that claims Mary was pregnant with Jesus' offspring. Joseph and Britt team up moving across Europe in a quest for the UNHOLY GRAIL believing the Lea Serpent Rouge has sent their minion after them.

In the tradition of the Da Vinci Code, D.L. Wilson provides an exciting thought provoking religious thriller that will astonish readers with the amount of historical facts and dogma interwoven into the storyline without slowing down the action-packed story line. The two protagonists undertake the quest to quell their doubts, but find much more than they anticipated. Although the premise is over the top, the audience will appreciate this action adventure thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Father Joseph Romano is a Jesuit priest and a researcher. While working on one of his theories with the help of two students, he receives a mysterious phone call. The caller tells him that he has an original parchment written by Jesus' brother, James, which could bring a lot of changes and completely reform Christian beliefs. Very eager to get the manuscript, Father Romano agrees to meet the caller at Grand Central Station.

In the meantime, Brittany Hamar receives a very similar call. She is also promised to receive the original Gospel, which could be the breaking point for her new book called "Jesus Fraud." Brittany is very determined to reveal some of her new theories regarding Jesus and his bloodline. The mysterious document would help make her book more credible and overcome some of the old and traditional beliefs.

Father Romano arrives at the Grand Central Station and anxiously awaits the meeting. Suddenly, he hears a gunshot and a minute later he is handed a wooden box by a passer by who disappears in the crowd. Not paying too much attention to the content of the box, Father Romano rushes to help the shot woman (who later turns out to be Brittany Hamar). Not until a little later, when he remembers about the box, does he discover that it contains a gun and that he was probably being framed not only in the assassination of the writer but the priests who start dying shortly after the unfortunate meeting.

When reading the title and the blurbs on the cover, you can't help but notice the familiarities of this book with the famous book by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code. However, I would say that Unholy Grail by D.L Wilson is a little less complex, thus easier to follow and equally engrossing.

The book is a superbly paced thriller that keeps you on your toes from the very beginning. The historical facts are skillfully intertwined with the story line, making the reader understand the background of the book better without jeopardizing the pace of the book.

Armchair Interviews says: Unholy Grail is a very recommended adventure thriller.

First, let me state that I have never written a review for any book or product on any website. This is my first. That is significant because this book was so bad, so poorly written that I was compelled to write in order to warn others away from this book. If you are a fan of grail legends, the Knights Templar, and the relativly new religious thriller genre consider your self particularlly warned to stay even further away from Unholy Grail. As others have stated, the plot was forced as our hereos are pulled from scene to scene in a manner that is neither exciting nor mysterious. Their actions are predictable and their conversations border on ridiculous. I lost count of how many chatpers ended with an exclamation point; it really reminded me of a fifth grade student writing a "what I did over the summer paragraph." "The Grand Canyon was really neat!" There is a reason the ! is hidden over the 1 key; it's supposed to be hard to find! Just as annoying was the thoughtless dribble that went on inside the characters head. Most annoying for me was the chararcter Britt, a supposed Grail and bloodline expert is surprised to find that Rennes-le-Chaeau has been turned into a tourist mecca. Not much of an expert on all things grail.

If you are looking for an elementary primer on Gnostic thought you can pick up some insights otherwise save your $6.00 for a latte'.

The Unholy Grail grabbed my attention from the very first Chapter...this is truly a great find! It was suspenseful and a fast paced read. You never quite knew what was going to happen next. I really liked the way the location of each event was described it really put me at the scene with Father Romano and Britt!

Successful books set the standard for entire genres. In religious fiction, the bar was raised when Dan Brown's novel The DaVinci Code broke sales records, eventually becoming one of the most talked about and most widely read books in modern publishing. Its popularity grew further with the release of a major motion picture of the same name starring Tom Hanks. The DaVinci Code accomplished many things, one of which was that it established religious fiction as a moneymaking genre, allowing others to follow. However, the authors of those books would have to raise their game in order to pass into acceptance from what is fast becoming a theologically educated fan base of readers.

In the novel Unholy Grail, Father Romano, a Jesuit priest, finds himself intimately connected to a series of murders conducted in a style that suggests that a psychotic religious fanatic is on the loose. During this string of murders, Romano crosses paths with Brittney Hamar, a college teacher of religion who is writing a groundbreaking book called The Jesus Fraud. The two become bound by their mutually passionate desire to discover the truth about a bloodline that might be traced all the way back to Jesus Christ and the organization that has been keeping it a secret.

Parallels to The DaVinci Code cannot be avoided; Unholy Grail carries with it the same central theme. It has two roving characters, one academic, the other investigative, and of course the looming threat of a deadly agent determined to stop them from learning what should not be known. The differences are not in the favor of Unholy Grail. The characters are less interesting and less believable, and the storyline moves with a choppy pace that lacks action, giving the reader picture scenes of where something had once happened, but scenery doesn't trump action.

In the publishing world, timing is important. Had the book come out five years earlier it may have made an impact. Clearly, the story was meant to teach certain lessons concerning faith and skepticism, but anyone who is steadily reading books in this genre will not learn much here that hasn't already been written elsewhere.